sick dragonfish

Question
Hello. I've been reading a lot about sick dragonfish and I've decided to ask for help. I have one dragonfish, by itself, in a 50 gallon tank of brackish water kept at the tempature of 78-84 degrees. I have the smallest amount of gravel on bottom and hiding places. It started with ick. I treated and replaced 10%-20% of water as instructed. Ick is gone. I change 10%-20% of water once a week. I know not to do too much cleaning at one time. I add the calculated amount of salt back to the replaced water. Now my dragonfish is losing weight, doesn't swim much anymore, doesn't go into a frenzy when i feed(which was once a day-now twice to keep weight on). A couple of weeks ago, I did the 6 step process which included 20% water removed and replaced, salt added back, raise temperature of water 4 degrees for 3-4 days then lower four degrees for 3-4 days and then repeat process(i read this process keeps the bacteria growth down), and treated with Quick Cure. I am at a loss. I need more info. Am I not putting in enough salt? Or too much Salt? Is there something I'm not doing? I hope I've given you enough information to help. Thank you so much for your time.   S

Answer

Prehistoric Dragon Gob Hi Scarlett,

Regarding medications you may want to research fish medications containing copper in it. Copper is a great trace element to kill off most disease and fungus. But be extremely careful and follow the manufacturers advice regarding dosing. Over dosing can be fatal.

For everything else you mention I'd love to help you pinpoint the problem or come up with a better solution, but there may be other variables involved. Some questions to ask yourself would include the following...

Are you referring to a Prehistoric Dragon Goby (Gobioides broussonnetii) ?

How long have you owned the fish, and how old is the fish?

Can you think of anything you are doing differently that the previous owner or pet store of the fish did?

Are you offering your dragon live feeder fish, if so are these live feeder fish healthy, and disease free? (live healthy feeder insects may be a good high protein alternative)

Are you using filtered water to do water-changes or are you using just using de-chlorinated tap water? Some tap water sources contain high levels of micro-contaminants. Water from underground well sources can contain silicates and phosphates from farm land fertilizer run off, which can be harmful.

Basically look at all the possible variables to help pinpoint. Once this is done then you can start narrowing them down and finding possible solutions.

In conclusion If you have tested all your water parameters including pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and they are in the safe zone, then there is definitely other variables to start tracking down. They prefer hard water with an alkalinity of 10 to 20 dKH and a pH of 7.5 to 8.0. In order to maintain these conditions, it is best to provide a substrate consisting of aragonite. The aragonite substrate can be mixed with darker gravel to reduce glare from the lighting. See the following link below for a description of the CaribSea brand Aragonite, which is a quality aragonite substrate that would help to naturally condition your water.

http://www.ocreef.com/caribsea_aragamax_oolitic_select_reef_sand_substrate_30_lb...

A few other examples of things to log and track would include: start looking at the foods you're giving your fish, lighting photo-periods, temperature, check salinity measuring devices for accuracy... to much salt can be very harmful, and lastly check any other chemicals that you might be adding to the aquarium.

P.S. If the fish will eat for you this is a good sign; make sure to keep feeding him well, but of course do not over-feed; food will help keep him healthy which will in turn help his immune system fight the disease and/or fungus.

Best Regards,
Dave

All Experts - Editor

OCReef.com - Director